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Mini Drives for Mini-CDs?
fist_187 asks: "i'm working on a semi-portable MP3 player project, and would like to include a CD-ROM drive in my setup, but a full size drive is a little bigger than I'd like. so, I thought about using a drive designed for mini-CDs...but I can't find any! I know that there are several MP3 portables that use mini-CDs, but does someone know where to find the drives themselves (preferably in a USB or IDE variety)? The only thing I've been able to find, after some searching, is the Imation RipGO!, but that's already a player... defeating the purpose of building from scratch in the first place. Does anyone have advice on where to look?"
Lemme see if I got this right.
You want to build a product from scratch. While looking for components, you found a inexpensive complete product that meets your needs, available off the shelf, that has too many features for too low of a price.
And the problem is...?
What's your damage, Heather?
Isn't the combined size of the molex connector and the ide connector larger than the size of a mini-cd? I doubt you'll find a drive meeting your requirements. The only way I could see this working would be one that used the floppy ide/power connectoions. Of course, creating a cd-rom drive that can only hold less information than it's competition (zip drive) probably wouldn't do very well. But, gook look in your quest.
"...we dont care about the economics; we just want to be able to hack great stuff."
1. Buy said mini-CD player from Best Buy.
2. Disassemble; make note of component manufacturers and part numbers. Call said manufacturer(s) for sample(s).
3. Reassemble. Return unit to Best Buy for a refund.
Kid-proof tablet..
4. Break.
5. hop around and cuss.
-- Insert wisdom here:
I'm working on a human transporter capable of carrying 4-6 people and keep them protected from the weather, move them around at speeds up to 70mph. The design is centered around my hopes to use a internal combustion engine - it would use gasoline and have things that go up and down and make a spark and go 'vroom' when you stepped on a pedal inside the passenger compartment, but I can't find any! I know that there are several person 'porters that use engines, but does anybody know where to get engines directly? The only thing I have been able to find is cars by Ford, Chevy, VW, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, etc... but those engines are already in a person mover... defeating the purpose of building from scratch in the first place. Does anyone have advice on where to look?
:)
I am sure that with my new invention and some simple mass production techniques I will be able to sell these new people movers at a slight profit for less than $200,000 apiece.
(Ok Dean Kamen if you are reading this - we are laughing with you, not at you.
-:-
Honestly though, if you want to build it just to build it because that is what you want to do, just buy a single one one of the ones off the shelf by Imation, reverse engineer it via destructive analysis (take it apart), use the parts and ideas from that one that you like, like someone else mentioned track down the OEM part maker for the drive and look into a bulk purchase of that part, then re-evaluate the viability of the project. But if it is in your heart, build it - that is for sure, and we stand behind you on building your prototype 100%.
If you can't build it in mass quantity cheap enough to sell it at the price point of the Imation less 10% (because between now and then prices are coming down on hardware) then it isn't a viable commercial product. If you can build it for a third the cost of the Imation unit, go for it.
But follow your dreams. Old men laying in their death beds never look back and say 'damn I am glad I played it safe back when I was young.'
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
I've filled out the full size bays in quite a number of machines I have, and most still have floppy size bays available. I could put a floppy or zip drive in there, but a floppy is way too tight to build the rescue disk system I need to have (because it has more software than can ever fit on a floppy ... it's about 32MB in size). I've tried Zip drives, but all three I've used turn out to be regularly unreliable (I can coax them to work, but this isn't the kind of thing I want to put in customer locations). Maybe it's the media, but either way, the Zip drive option isn't where I want to go.
A small mini-CD drive that fits in the floppy drive bay would be ideal. Such a product would also let us start downsizing computer cases in a lot of new ways for the special purposes that don't need large amounts of CD data (such as firewalls and specialized mini-servers).
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
If you plan on making a few thousand units you'll be able to work with the asian companies that make the mechanical portions of these drives that you can put in your product.
Other than that, no one is interested in making a mass produced version simply because it holds so little data. Perhaps if someone would finally come out with an 80mm DVD then the players for that (~1GB for dual layer) might be enough data to make it worthwhile.
At this point, I'd suggest you simply use a large 2.5" or 1.8" or compactflash hard drive.
No one wants to carry their music seperate from their players anymore anyway. It's cheaper to have them seperate now, and the user interface is a little easier since you don't have to spend so much time catagorizing your music and playlists, but this isn't the case for the IPOD, and future devices aren't likely to continue to do it this way.
-Adam
Get hold of sony's parts dept and obtain a vaio mini-disc data drive :)
That way, you can store data, import mini-discs and anything else you want. Mini-discs are small enough for what you are seeking.